PHIL SHERWIN, from Burslem: “I was surprised at the team. You can’t play one up front when Tom Pope is the one. The lone striker needs to have pace and I am sure Tom would say himself that isn’t one of his attributes.

"We did go close. Dave Worrall – who I thought played quite well - hit the post. Then we had one headed off the line in the second half, but we can’t keep bemoaning bad luck when we’ve gone four games without scoring. Notts County didn’t look that good but their sub Lewis Alessandra – who we were linked with in the summer – scored within a minute of coming on.

"So, that leaves us in 91st, the lowest position we have been in since February 1981. It’s worrying.

"Social media makes pressure much worse nowadays. Who knows, if we’d had it in the mid 1980s John Rudge might have gone early on.”

ROB RHEAD, from May Bank: “If you thought England's match in Malta was boring, the first half against County gave it a good run for its money. Apart from a couple of wide efforts and Dave Worrall's shot that hit the post there was precious little to shout about.

“Worrall and Ben Whitfield ran about a bit, Cristian Montaño continued to flatter to deceive and Notts County looked as if they thought they were at a WWE event they were doing that much wrestling, Shola Ameobi in particular.

Port Vale's David Worrall's shot hits the post in the 1-0 defeat at home to Notts County

“The second half started more brightly with Worrall again at the centre of things. There were calls for a penalty when Tom Pope went down in the area but crucially none from Tom himself and, let's face it, he's not normally slow to voice his opinions. However, we failed to deal with a straightforward cross and County scored with their first effort on target. I'm afraid I didn't wait for the eight added minutes having something more interesting to go to.”

ANDREW BLAKEMORE, from Denford: “Well that's the final nail in the coffin for me. We've had nine months of Michael Brown's tenure and nothing has changed. We can't keep listening to week after week of excuses, today was another example.

“We played four central defenders at the back so there was no attack minded element from the full backs and one up front. Credit to Tom Pope as he never gave up, but without a partner up front or at least a number 10 behind him we were never going to threaten.

“Sadly, the result aside, I thought we played reasonably well, even if we didn't manage to create enough in the final third.

“Everyone will say it's early days and knee jerk, but let's be realistic, we've seen and had enough. Brown's nine-month record speaks for itself, it's one of the worst in modern times. He needs to be the big man and admit he's failed and resign, to give Port Vale the opportunity to move forward this season."